Great Timing, Chaps!

Robert Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer picked a bad time to write their article:

The Guardian's brave and insightful undercover investigation into the activities of the EDL should finally persuade Westminster politicians to take the issue of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim violence seriously.

They say, just as the usual meaning of the word ‘peaceful’ gets a kicking from, well, who else..?

Any more ‘evidence’ you’d like to put forward, chaps?

… a cursory examination of the records of Islamophobia Watch over the last five years provides a sense of the extent of Islamophobia in the mainstream media.

Would that be the ‘Islamophobia Watch’ that is regularly hauled over the coals at ’Harry’s Place’ for hysteria and selective outrage?

Great sources, guys…

Similarly, Daily Mail commentator Peter Oborne is right to argue that it has become "permissible to fabricate malicious falsehoods and therefore foment hatred against Muslims in a way which would be regarded as immoral and illegal if perpetrated against any other vulnerable section of society".

No he’s not, and no it isn’t.

I’m not aware of any exceptions to the laws of libel and slander that are crafted specifically to exclude Muslims from their protection…

Prior to 9/11 we can find no record of a racist attack in the UK in which the victim is berated for being "a Muslim terrorist" or "Muslim extremist". During the last decade it has become commonplace.

Gosh. I wonder why that is?

Did something happen on 9/11?

Those Who Can, Do...

...those who can't (understand how to dial 999), teach:

...although a court heard police found an open bottle of wine in her car, the mother-of-three walked free with a suspended sentence after a judge accepted her defence that she had suffered an asthma attack and only got behind the wheel to find a hospital.

Judge Dudley Bennett, you are an utter moron.

Pretty Much The Default Attitude...

...that New Labour helped to inculcate:

A traveller yesterday criticised the council for intervening.

The man, who refused to be identified, said: 'How can they say what it's going to be before it's finished? They're in the wrong, not us.'

If you want this sort of behaviour, you need to nurture it. And for 13 years, they did.

And now it's someone else's problem.

The Wisdom Of Phillip Hensher On The David Laws Affair

"...might it be that, nearly 30 years after the notoriously homophobic Bermondsey by-election in which Simon Hughes defeated Peter Tatchell, the Liberal Democrats are much less easy a party for gay people to be open in than they perhaps believe? After all, there are notoriously no ethnic minority Liberal Democrat MPs, and only one serving peer. Could it be that the Liberal Democrats are no more at ease with another significant minority in society today?"

Ah. I see. The Liberal Democrats are homophobes because they are racists. Or is it that they are racists because they are homophobes?

And he can't resist a pop at Paisley South, either:

When Gordon McMaster, a gay Labour MP, committed suicide in July 1997, he used his suicide to accuse two fellow Labour MPs of persecuting him. The sort of life which a Gordon McMaster led in politics was very different from the one a gay Tory MP leads who represents a sophisticated and educated constituency, say.

My, my, my...

I'm No Witch...

...but I'll tell you what the future holds for you, Adesuwa Ojo-Osagie:

In a letter to Mr Carlyon, Ojo-Osagie, said: “In 2009, six weeks after my fifth child was born I was put in prison. I came out of prison last November and all of our assets including money in my children’s accounts were confiscated.

“We have since been served with deportation papers and our situation is very critical as deportation is imminent.

“Please if you know about ‘The Mirror’ that one can look into to see past and future events, I will be very interested in it. We want to know what the future holds for us.”

The future held 8 months imprisonment, after Mr Carlyon proved not to be as barmy as you'd think from his stated profession:

Mr Carlyon said: “If anything I'm on the side of the authorities and my wish would be that any person of this ilk should be deported, whatever hard luck story they choose to spin.”

A white witch? This man should be a magistrate!

Want Some Graffiti Cleaned Up Quickly?

Well, slip the Chief Executive of your council (or a nearby council, it doesn't seem to matter) the money, and it shall be done!

Oh, wait. It might help to be a councillor:

Shortly before the elections on May 6, Conservative councillor Anna Waite (Ed: Yup, her again...) had “Vote Labour” sprayed across the wall at her home in Barling, which falls under Rochford District Council’s remit.

She admitted workers from Southend cleaned the paint off, but said she paid for the work.

Mrs Waite said: “Yes, Southend Council workers did clear the vandalism, but I did pay for the work to be done.

“I wanted it done quickly. I approached Rob Tinlin, I stressed I didn’t want any favours, he said he would deal with it. I paid about £150 to have the work done.”

You 'didn't want any favours', eh..? So I guess this is a service available to all council ratepayers and residents, so long as they pay?

Mr Tinlin backed up Mrs Waite’s account of the events.

He said: “What she said is correct. The issue was left with me and it was my decision to use council resources, for which she paid for, to help a Southend councillor.”

Well, then we know who should lose their job for misuse of council resources...

Here's Why You Should Always Check Before You Leap In...

...which is something those 'peace activists' could have done, before they decided to play a game of 'Ahh, they're bluffing reall...Oh, no they're not!' with the Israelis:

It was then that a PCSO came over and asked him what he was doing.

He told the PCSO that it was nothing to do with her and he was fully entitled to be taking pictures.

He claims the PCSO then told him he could be stopped from taking the photos under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Sadly for the uniformed dimwit, not only was Mr Salgado-Reyes not about to take any crap from a plastic policewoman, but neither was his colleague:

But, unknown to the over-zealous PCSO the colleague he was standing with was a solicitor and they just happened to be stood directly outside their office.

She then asked them if they lived in the area or worked here.

Mr Salgado-Reyes said: “I told her we did indeed work in Croydon and pointed to the sign above our heads, which read Mansouri and son solicitors.

Upon which, she apparently became 'very friendly'. How strange...

And Mr Salgado-Reyes has some words of advice for anyone buttonholed by these useless semi-officials:

“For too long the local councils have had far too much power and it is time to take it back.

“Everyone should have to adhere to the same rules.”

Quite...

How Many Policeman Does It Take....

...to arrest a 62 year old man on a mobility scooter?

Don't bother wracking your brains for a punchline. It isn't a joke (well, not that sort, anyway):

Riding home on his mobility scooter at less than 4 mph, Eamonn Donohoe wasn't going anywhere in a hurry and didn't appear to be a menace to pedestrians.

But when the drunken Irishman ignored a policeman's attempt to flag him down, the local constabulary decided to take no chances.

As Mr Donohoe, 62, was trundling along the pavement near his sheltered bungalow he found himself surrounded by eight police officers and three marked vehicles.

Oh, boy! 'Polce Stop: Chesterfield' must be high on some late-night TV executive producers list...

One patrol car mounted the kerb to block his way and after failing a roadside breath test the disabled grandfather was locked in police cells for 12 hours, fingerprinted, photographed and had a DNA swab taken.

I suspect the offence here was less 'driving while drunk' and more 'not obeying the police immediately'. If he had stopped, I wonder if he'd have got off with a caution?

Or is Chesterfield a crime-free paradise where there's nothing more serious going on? Well, the crime figures are mostly above the national averages, so I'll guess that's a 'no'.

Indeed, this isn't Mr Donohoe's first brush with the law, albeit on the other side last time:

...the bizarre episode has left the retired construction worker from Old Whittington, Chesterfield, feeling disillusioned with the forces of law and order.

He said:'I can’t believe how they treated me – anybody would think that I was a bank robber or a member of Al-Qaeda.

'The police are always saying they’re short of resources, and then go and employ eight officers arresting someone like me. It’s completely mad, and a total waste of public money.

'When someone broke into my home and stole my TV and my video two years ago the police didn’t turn up for three days, and yet they can drop everything for something as daft as this. There’s no wonder the police get it in the neck.'

Indeed, Mr Donohoe. Hard to disagree.

Particularly when you read stuff like this, from Pavlov's Cat. It comes as no surprise to see that it's West Midland Police yet again, either.

I Guess ‘Peaceful’ Is Something That Just Doesn’t Translate Well…

Talat Ali, 40, organizer from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: "This is a peaceful demonstration against the attack that has taken place on the Gaza flotilla.

"We are not happy with the way commanders boarded vessels and butchered people.

"We are not happy with the biased news given by the BBC."

So, just how did they express their ‘peacefulness’..?

Protesters demonstrating against the Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound aid ship have attempted to storm the BBC in Manchester.

More than 800 people marched through the city centre and down Oxford Road, where the crowd surged at the BBC's entrance, smashing its front doors.

One man climbed to the top of the building to plant a Palestinian flag and there were at least three arrests.

/facepalm

The War On Photography Continues Unabated...

As the sun shines, and newspapers both national and local want pictures of people sunning themselves, there's also someone else roaming beaches with photography on their mind:

A beach warden – who would only identify himself as “Beach 8” – challenged our photographer as she took snaps on the promenade at Branksome Chine yesterday.

He demanded to see a licence and told her she shouldn’t be taking pictures without one.

Yup, it's the return of the 'We'll chance our luck, they may not know the law' council official...

After years of taking photos on the beaches unchallenged, our snapper Hattie Miles ploughed on regardless.

But the Echo wanted to know why we had been stopped in the first place.

Stuart Terry, coastal works manager at Poole council, said the beach was council land and it was “standard industry practice” to seek permission before taking pictures.

Nothing there about the clear disregard for the law shown by their employee, or by their failure to identify themselves.

I think 'coastal works manager' is a post that could be cut, don't you?

And for anyone not familiar with the case referred to in the comments to that Poole article, here's a statement that should be printed out and stapled to 'Beach 8's' forehead:

No bylaw exists prohibiting the taking of photographs on the beach.

Couldn't be clearer, could it? But Mr Terry soldiers gamely on:

But Mr Terry said beach wardens might approach photographers if they have not been given prior warning.

What part of 'there is no need for anyone to seek your permission to photograph a public beach' do you not understand, Mr Terry?

And what sort of recruitment procedures does Poole Council have, when they employ (and retain, unless both 'Beach 8' and Mr Terry are out on rtheir ear by the time this post goes up) people who can't understand the law when it's pointed out to them repeatedly?